Severity of coronary atherosclerosis and stroke incidence in 7-year follow-up

The purpose of this prospective study was to investigate the association between the severity of coronary atherosclerosis in angiography and the risk of stroke in symptomatic coronary artery disease (CAD) patients without atrial fibrillation or atrial flutter. Associations between stroke and coronary artery disease were examined in 1,183 subjects without a history of stroke and who were referred for diagnostic coronary angiography. Association between stoke and coronary artery disease was determined using the COX proportional hazard regression model. During the follow-up period (mean 6.7 years), 50 strokes occurred. In the group with strokes there was a higher prevalence of multi-vessel coronary artery disease (62 vs. 46 %, p < 0.01). In the COX proportional hazard regression model, multi-vessel CAD was significantly associated with the stroke hazard ratio (HR) of 1.8 (CI 1.03-3.43), determined from a 7-year period of observation. Symptomatic patients with multi-vessel CAD are thus at a high risk of stroke development.